By Kieran Heffernan, Dan Plouffe, Charlie Pinkerton, Madalyn Howitt & Martin Cleary
Vincent De Haître, Derek Gee, Michael Foley and Jay Lamoureux repeated their win against Germany to finish 5th overall in the men’s team pursuit. This is the country’s best finish in the event since 1932, when the Canadians came 4th.
The race went exactly as planned, according to the strategy our Martin Cleary reported prior to the Olympics. De Haître got Team Canada off to a fast start, beginning in the front and taking the team through the first 1000 metres in 1:01.143. He then rolled off, since only three riders need to finish the race in the team pursuit competition.
Already a second faster than the Germans after the 1st kilometre, the Canadians increased their lead over the rest of the 4-kilometre race, with all three remaining riders taking turns leading the pack. Canada finished almost 4 seconds ahead of Germany, with the two teams being able to be seen basically on the same straightway at times.
The team’s time of 3:46.324 broke the Canadian record that they had just set a day earlier, 3:46.769, in the 1st classification round.
Here’s video of the race, courtesy of CBC:
Gee still has one more competition to go in Tokyo, the madison relay race, which takes place early Saturday morning, eastern time.
De Haître will have barely any time to rest before trying to qualify for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing. Those Games are being held this winter, beginning on Feb. 4, 2022.
If he qualifies, the 27-year-old speedskater-turned-cyclist would compete in his fourth Olympics, and third Winter Games.
